By:Roger Alvarado
Mayor Angelo Corradino says that despite its rapidly deteriorating state, Cooper Pool in Lost Valley can and will be repaired so it can re-open for one more year.
Mayor Corradino made the announcement at Monday’s Borough Council meeting following a discussion between Director of Public Works Director Phil Petrone and Cunningham Engineering and Land Development Services, the same consulting firm that refurbished Memorial Pool.
According to Mayor Corradino, the firm told Mr. Petrone that it could have the pool repaired and ready to open by July 1.
"There is no way that it could be rebuilt by July 1," Mayor Corradino said. "But it can be repaired without there being any safety or health hazards to anyone."
Moved by the news, Borough Council members voted 4-0 in Senga Allan’s absence, with Susan Asher abstaining, to formally enter into a $25,000 professional service contract with the firm to do the repair work and come up with the design of a new pool, which would not open until 2005.
Mayor Corradino say’s he’s glad the pool can be repaired for one more year because of the savings it will bring to the people of Manville.
"If we had gone out for bid now we would not have been bidding in a climate favorable to us," Mayor Corradino said. "The summer is coming up and we would have to pay more. But because we’ll hold off until after the season we’ll be able to find a more favorable bidding climate."
Councilwoman Asher, who first brought the pool issue before the council last month, said she abstained from the vote because she would have rather seen a new pool built.
However, knowing that safety won’t be an issue and that major repairs to the filter system, walls and floor of the pool will be made before it is opened to the public has given her a greater sense of "confidence" that the council did the right thing.
"I was not aware of the fact that if we put the job out to bid now contractors would be highly booked with jobs and the cost would be so much higher," Ms. Asher said.
According to Mayor Corradino, the borough will now be able to know definitively where it stands with the county on a $100,000 grant application, which he says will substantially offset the cost to the borough.
A new pool will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $170,000 and $200,000, the mayor said.
He says he expects to know more about the grant’s status within the next two months.
